| Abstract: | Daily values of the solar radiant energy incident on earth's surface constitute a quantity of increasing importance, not only in nonconventional energy development but also for agricultural, weather, and climate monitoring and predictions. In Argentina, the solar global radiation has been measured since 1978 through a network of pyranometers distributed all over the country. Simultaneously, in the area limited by 21° and 41°S latitude and 53° and 67°W longitude, insolation determinations have been made using the geostationary satellite GOES from May 1982 to June 1984. Therefore, it was possible to compare the simultaneous hourly and daily values of solar global radiation corresponding to the northern part of the country during 1982 and 1983. In this article, the results of the comparison are presented. It is shown that the standard error of the satellite-derived hourly and daily insolation values when compared against pyranometers is about 25%, and in the range of 15 to 20% of the mean values, respectively. Therefore, operational estimation of surface insolation in the region using GOES data appears normally feasible. |
